Mitch Stephens has been writing about high school sports in the Bay Area since LeBron James was born (1984). He spent 16 years in the Alameda Newspaper Group and two years as a freelancer before landing as The San Francisco...

Mitch Stephens has been writing about high school sports in the Bay Area since LeBron James was born (1984). He spent 16 years in the Alameda Newspaper Group and two years as a freelancer before landing as The San Francisco Chronicle's prep editor in 2002. He accepted a national columnist post with CBS/MaxPreps.com in 2007 and the next year took on both MaxPreps and Chronicle prep content provider roles.

Though he deeply enjoys athletic competition and the games, his speciality is human interest and profiles. He won back-to-back California Prep Sports Writers Association awards for feature writing. Among the many elite Bay Area athletes he's covered as preps are Jason Kidd, Gary Payton, Jahvid Best, D.J. Williams, Maurice Jones-Drew and Jeremy Linn. There's no sport Mitch doesn't relish covering and no profile he doesn't find interesting. The high school landscape is a minefield for rich, personal stories.